Regera
The Regera is the second flight certified airframe of the Agera-Class Spaceplane. The sister ship to the Agera, the Regera was originally completed as a strictly cargo variant of the Agera. The crew capsule was replaced in favor of a 7.5m extension of the hold, with an overall payload bay of 15m. While slightly lighter then the Agera, the Regera suffered from a slightly different Center of Mass, leading to ungainly controls. Additionally, it wasn't until the Regera had the engine power of the Block V upgrade that the cargo variant would've been viable. History The Regera had a very troubled development period. The first actual payload flight was one of the only failures of the program. During SST-008, an Athena Relay was to be delivered to LKO where it would boost itself to PKO, as Regera lacked the range to make it to a PKO. During the release of the relay, the RCS systems onboard Regera could not move the Regera out of the way, and the Zeus struck the rear of the hanger, and slammed into the rear rudder of the Regera. While the relay was damaged beyond repair, the telemetry data from the relay served a crucial role of allowing KASA to reconstruct the accident. Fearing the damage to the tiles on the leading edge of the rudder would cause the Regera to burn up on reentry, a conventional rocket manned mission was launched. Due to the lack of KASA manned certified rocket, Azovka Space Industries was contacted to launch a Lyra II rocket to rendezvous with the stricken craft. The crew would replace 5 damaged tiles at the base of the rudder, and ran diagnostics to make sure the hydraulics or any other systems hadn't been damaged. The upper insulation behind the hanger bay was relatively undamaged, with a shard of the satellite inside. The crew returned to Kerbin aboard the Lyra II capsule, and the Regera would stay in orbit for 2 weeks to allow the glue to cure. The Regera would performed the reentry maneuver and would land without issue. However, during post-flight analysis it was found that the rudder had suffered significant structural fatigue and required replacement. A result from the accident, the payload certification of both Agera and Regera were both revoked. While Regera underwent repairs, Agera was launched without payloads to regain the certification. To prevent the same accident, the RCS thrusters were turned up. However, an upgrade plan was needed. The Block III update would feature an expanded fuel tank and more RCS Thrusters. The later Block IV-V update would see the Regera completely rebuilt. The Agera and Regera both entered refit to receive the Block IV update, but due to delays in converting Regera, Agera would reenter service months before Regera would. During this time, performance data from Agera would lead to the Regera seeing other refits. The fuel tank was shorted again to Block II standards, 2 additional engines were added. The Regera would never be updated directly to Block IV, but rather upgraded directly to Block V. Launches Category:Spaceplane